


et in arcadia ego

by nickofhearts



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 06:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: Vaguely inspired byLife is Strange: Before the Storm.





	et in arcadia ego

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching the new _Life is Strange_ episode and really wanted to write something inspired by the series! The choices were, obviously, Ardyn as Mr. Jefferson (get fucked, Noct), Ardyn as Chloe Price (NOPE, NOT OKAY), but then I got to the theatre scene of Rachel Amber going off line and basically declaring herself to Chloe before all the world, and just. JUST. Ardyn and Noct are going on the roadtrip to freedom that Chloe and Rachel never get to, okay.

Noct kissed Ardyn and didn't think about the past, about all the things that had passed between them. He closed his eyes and thought only of _now,_ of the soft press of Ardyn's mouth against his, of the endless roads and possibilities stretching out before them.

He grinned at Ardyn in the light of the setting sun, and didn't think of how the red washed over his now-black hair like blood. That had been another life, and Noct felt both like it was a part of him and also completely detached from it as if it'd happened to someone else entirely. He only knew that there was no one else in the world who could understand except Ardyn, and that kissing him felt right in ways he couldn't name. 

Noct slid against him in the junky car that must have reminded Ardyn of his ride in that other existence, but it only felt good now, like touchstones of familiarity. He didn't know why they'd been brought back, but he knew the red string of fate bound them together as surely as any chain around their fingertips.

" _Noct,_ " Ardyn whispered into his ear, shaded with millennia of meaning, and Noct reached down to hold their hands together. 

"Let's run away together," Noct murmured back. He pressed the words into Ardyn's skin like he could burn them there. They were sixteen and thirty and two thousand, and this town couldn't hold them. Noct felt Ardyn's fingers tucked at the small of his back, Ardyn kissing him again, drawing the moment out into infinity.

" _Let's._ "

-

Noct hadn't remembered right away. He'd caught a flash of black hair down the hallway, the familiar curve of a sly smirk, and then the memories had come rushing in like water from a dam.

"I _killed_ you," Noct gasped, as Ardyn came towards him with the same dazed look on his face.

" _Quite,_ " Ardyn agreed. 

Noct woke up again to Ardyn sat at his bedside in the nurse's office. The memories layered one on top of another, like he was seeing both Ardyn of the now and Ardyn of the then, and Noct shook his head to clear it of the tangled cobwebs of hundreds of years past. 

"I find myself at a loss," Ardyn murmured softly. "Is this a second chance, or is it _hell?_ "

Noct yawned, stretching his shoulders out. He felt more himself again, that nothing had changed, really. His memories didn't make him who he was, and they didn't make _Ardyn_ either. 

"Why does it have to be either?" he wondered.

Ardyn looked at him like he was crazy, and Noct had to burst out laughing at the incongruity of it: Ardyn in this life dark-haired and blue-eyed while Noct's own hair had become a coppery gold, his eyes as green as pieces of glass worn smooth by the sea. He leaned in on a whim and brushed a kiss over Ardyn's mouth. 

Ardyn let it happen for one moment, and then another, and then he was grabbing Noct and rolling them over on the flimsy fold-out bed in the nurse's office.

It felt _right,_ like they'd always been meant to fit together.

-

"Oreos or Reese's Pieces?" Noct asked, picking through the snack selection at the gas station they'd stopped in on. It was nice that _Ardyn_ hadn't made him get the gas, unlike his so-called retainers. Noct snatched the two bags up with a nod. " _Both_ is the correct answer."

Ardyn shook his head at him. "You're going to rot your teeth with those, Noct."

Noct stuck his tongue out in response. He was already tearing the Oreos open and shoving them into his mouth three at a time while Ardyn watched with a horrified yet fascinated expression. 

"What?" Noct mumbled, spraying crumbs everywhere.

"Your talents far exceed my expectations," Ardyn remarked dryly.

Noct gave him the finger and shuffled to the front to pay for his purchases. It didn't feel _weird,_ was the thing. It felt totally natural to just—drive into the sunset with Ardyn, away from all the things in _this_ life that no longer felt like they fit him.

Ardyn crowded him against the car when they got to it. He nibbled at Noct's mouth, then licked away a few stray crumbs. " _Sweet._ "

"You're going to rot your teeth, Ardyn," Noct parroted back at him in a high and whining imitation of Ardyn's voice. 

Ardyn shoved him down against the hood of the car, pushing Noct's shirt up to slide his hands against the bare skin while Noct made breathy little sounds and reached out his own hands to tug Ardyn against him. "It is a price I am _willing_ to pay," Ardyn murmured, and then he was licking over Noct's mouth again, Noct giggling and wrapping his legs around Ardyn's waist to drag him closer.

There was no dire destiny awaiting them in this life, and all possibilities were as open as the road that stretched out before them.


End file.
